French Revolution Taxes

This created famine in France with the rise in price of bread yet the government treasury had no money to purchase food from abroad. In 1788 towards the revolution, financial ministers like Jacque Necker advised the king to abolish or reduce on the many social and economic privileges of the nobility and the clergy. All classes would be equally exposed to taxes to stabilize the crisis. The aristocrats insisted that the change would be voted by the assembly of the entire nation with representatives from each estate. They were timing a success of 2 to 1 votes (with 2 votes from the nobility and the clergy, to 1 vote from the third estate) that would spare their privilege from paying taxes. The king agreed, and the eventual calling of the estates general meeting that brought representatives from all the three estates together at Versailles in May 5th, 1789 since the last 175 years. In the national Assembly, the division was created by the seating arrangements with separated order basing on privileges. In the assembly however, a struggle over voting was expected to be of one representative from each estate, but the third estate demanded for have a separate vote for each representative in the assembly of the entire nation. This is what sparked the 1789 French

The French Revolution was a time of great social, political and economic tumult in the closing years of the Eighteenth Century. The motivators pushing French citizenry toward revolution are varied in scope and origin. They range from immediate economic woes to an antiquarian class structure. Modern historians still debate the value of the changes that the revolution brought to modern society. The middle class made gains that would never be rescinded, but do revolutions always end in tyranny? In the years before the revolution citizens were rigidly constrained by the estates of the realm. These social strata had been in place since the medieval ages. The people were divided into three groups; clergy, nobility and everyone else. The clergy

During the period of 1789-1799 people lived much differently than individuals do today and there were many reasons for this. During the French Revolution there was a large amount of taxation for certain class groups, “While average tax rates were higher in Britain, the burden on the common people was greater in France” (GNU, 2008, pg. 2). Due to these large taxations on the peasants and lower class and not on the clergy and nobles it caused excessive conflict between the classes. Not only was taxation a cause of conflict between classes but so was the corrupt monarchy of France. The main causes of the French Revolution were over taxation, class conflict, and corrupt monarchy.

Before the revolution France was ruled under the Ancien Regime system, meaning the country and all its people were under the reign of an absolute monarch. This was a tradition that had been upheld through the years and the Royal family had enjoyed a life funded by the people of France, the royal family’s lifestyle unaffected by the situation outside their palace. The Palace, Versailles, was built by king Louis XIV and the expenses for building this “village” was very high, and in later years the cost for its upkeep would play a significant role in Frances financial difficulties. In order for these difficulties to be overcome France needed a tax reform. The government had a very high tax rate on the poorest of their people, the Third Estate, and they were still not getting enough money to get out of their

The citizens of the 3rd estate and some citizens in the 2nd estate in France during 1789, were not happy at all. They were getting heavily taxed by Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, and the Catholic Church. When they didn’t have the money to pay the taxes that was forced upon them. After all of the hard work they put in to growing crops, the crops were taken

Social Classes are one of the 3 main causes of the French Revolution. The 2 upper estates paid almost no taxes and also owned most of the land. The cartoon in document 7 shown

The First and Second Estates were free from taxes, which led to the Third Estate, primarily peasantry, being heavily tax. Due to King Louis XIV’s Palace of Versaille, and his extreme deficit spending, an extreme overspending of the government’s money leading to debt, taxes became heavier and heavier. This was an extremely heavy burden on the Third Estate considering that they had low income to begin with, while the first two estates were swimming in money. When peasants couldn't afford to make bread because of taxes, then bread prices inflated (Doc. 1). The prices were more than the peasants could afford, so this led to riots and disturbances, which were the roots to the beginning of a revolution (Doc.

The final group of the Old Regime was the third estate. This was France’s workforce. These people made up ninety-seven percent of the population, but were only allotted seventy percent of the land. The third estate had sub-groups of its own. The first group was the Bourgeoisie. This translates into “city dwelling” but is commonly known as the middle class. Those that made p this group were doctors, lawyers, and merchants. These people were fairly well off and had a bit of extra money. The main difference between the Bourgeoisie and the others in the third estate was that the Bourgeoisies were educated, specifically in enlightenment ideas. They later helped to steer the French Revolution. The next group within the third estate was laborers and artisans. This group consisted of the skilled craftsman in society. Along with the others in the third estate, they had low wages and high taxes. The third group of the third estate was the peasants. Making up roughly eighty percent of the population, the peasants were at the bottom of society. They lost nearly half their wages to taxes even though they had miniscule wages in the first place. They were forced to pay a tax to the church (tithe) and could not influence society. They disliked the first estate because they were the tax collectors and the second estate because they were the government officials. They fought this by

There were three Estates during the French Revolution. The First Estate was, the Clergy, it consisted of those employed by the Catholic Church. They had great influence in France, controlling vast amounts of land and were exempt from taxes. The Second Estate, the Nobility, were also exempt from most of the king taxes. They had the best and highest paid jobs in the army, church, and legal professions. The Third Estate, encompassing all the other people not in the other classes. This held the biggest percent of the population and had the greatest economic and social diversity. The vast amount of people in the Third Estate were starved and ragged because of the ever-increasing taxes they had to pay. Because the other two estates did not have to pay taxes, this made it even more difficult for the peasants to survive. The constitution also made the king the absolute

French society was ingrained with the ideology of a three class or estate society. The First Estate consisted of clergy who owned approximately ten percent of France’s land. The Second Estate contained the rich nobles who only occupied two percent of the French population, but had ownership of twenty percent of the country’s land. The Third Estate encompassed ninety-seven percent of the French population. The First and Second Estates had many privileges in French society, and they paid little to no taxes. Unfortunately, the tax burden fell upon the Third Estate, which caused them to yearn for political change. Hefty taxes fell upon business owners within the Third Estate who were unable to conduct a profitable business. On top of the tax crisis,

Taxing systems in Pre-Revolutionary France were disproportionate and unfair to the third estate as they paid a majority of everything, although they were the less wealthy. The third estate was taxed more than any other estate, they paid for all of the kings functions and his queens bad habit. This is supported by a source that shows the income and the spending of the French Crown. It states that only 14.9 million livres were spent on public works, whereas 42 million livres were spent on the royal household. The taxing systems in Pre-Revolutionary France provided a significant reason for the downfall of King Louis XVI and the French Monarchy.

In the 1700's there was social unfairness in France. Taxes and laws were different in each area of control/area of land causing confusion and terribly unfair treatment. Louis XIV and Louis XV both left big (money owed) when they died, and this made France almost out of money to pay bills. The (priests, bishops, deacons, etc.) and kings and queens had plenty of money but the king couldn't tax the wealthy. Louis XVI asked the First and Second Huge houses to accept a land tax, but they refused. In 1789, the country was in need of money and almost completely

During 1700’s France had three main classes or “estates”. The first estate and the most powerful one was made up of clergy this estate only accounted for 1% of France's population, but owned 10% of the property. The next estate was made up of nobles that were only 2% of the population but controlled 20% of France's land. Then there was the third estate than represented 97% of France's population but only owned 70% of the country's land. The third estate comprised of everyone from the middle class or the “bourgeoisie” to merchants all the way to peasants. The third estate was only estate that payed taxes which made them really mad because the two richer estates did not need to pay anything. Another reason why the third estate was unhappy is

The French Society was divided into 3 classes, the Clergy, Nobles and Common People. The clergy was divided into 2 subgroups the higher clergy which was considered to be the top. They managed the churches, monasteries and educational institutions of France. They did not pay any tax to the monarch. The higher clergy lived in luxury. The lower clergy was considered the miserable. The nobility didnt pay any tax to the king. The nobility was also divided into two subgroups, which was court nobles and provincial nobles. The court nobles lived in luxury. They did not pay any heed towards the problems of the common people of their areas. The provincial nobles paid their attention towards the problems of the people. But they did not enjoy the same privileges as the Court nobles enjoyed. The farmers, cobblers, sweepers and other lower classes belonged to this class. The condition of the farmers was very miserable. All of them had to pay taxes. The doctors, lawyers, teachers, businessmen, writers and philosophers belonged to this class. They had the wealth and social status. The common people became rebellious. The third cause of the French Revolution was the economic

The first stage of the revolution was caused by a number of factors, both economic and social. First of all, toward the end of the 18th Century, France was in deep financial trouble. The country was nearly bankrupt, due to a combination of leftover national debt from previous kings, several bad harvests in a row, and the recent expenses related to helping the American Revolution. To make things worse, the tax system was out of date and no longer met the financial needs of the nation (Nicassio 481). Under this system, the population of France was divided into three Estates. The First Estate was composed of members of the clergy, the Second Estate represented the nobles, and the Third included everybody else. Traditionally, the First Estate would